Friday morning Monica opened her eyes and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Crap, she thought it's only 6:45. Why am I awake? She willed herself to close her eyes and fall back asleep. Of course, it didn't work. Her mind kept replaying her last conversation with Gee. Was she wrong not to trust him? If only he had told her the truth from the beginning about Eliza being with them then this whole thing wouldn't seem so wrong. God, she wished he was home so she could look into his eyes and listen to his words. She finally gave up the hope of added sleep and crawled out of bed. Making her way into the kitchen to start the coffee she was shocked to see her daughter already in the kitchen. She was sitting with her head down resting on one arm on the table. She was picking Cheerios out of a bowl and lobbing them at Pookie. He was blithely sitting on the table across from her, seemingly unconcerned at the barrage.
"Good morning, Kara." Monica greeted her while making the coffee.
"What's good about it?" Kara answered in a monotone. She didn't look up or stop the cereal assault.
"You're up early. Isn't the whole point of vacation to finally sleep in?"
"Whatever."
Good Lord, Monica thought. There is nothing worse than a moody teenager. Nothing sucked the life out of a room faster. She looked at Kara and realized how tiny and vulnerable she looked. How for all for her brave talk and future plans, she was still just a baby, her baby. And somehow she had gone straight from skinned knees to a broken heart over night. She had no idea how to make it better or if she should even try. Those two had to work it out for themselves of they would certainly never have a chance at a future. Geez, when did life get so complicated? What a year it had been. A year ago, Kara's biggest concern was how to get Steve to ask her to Prom. Since then she'd dealt with the death of her father, being homeless and now she was dealing with a marriage that might be over before it even began. It was probably for the best. Kara was just too young and immature. Bob didn't seem to be any better.
"Mom?" Kara broke through Monica's reverie.
"Yeah, Honey?" Monica turned and poured herself a cup of the now finished coffee.
"What am I going to do?"
Monica had been hoping she wouldn't ask that question. She didn't know if she had any answers Just look at her own track record with relationships. How could she counsel her own daughter? She looked at Kara who was looking back at her expectantly with all the sorrow in the world reflected in her eyes.
Monica made up her mind. "Kara, go get dressed. This calls for real coffee." No offense to Jamia but this organic stuff was terrible and to add insult to injury - it was decaffeinated.
"Let's grab some Starbucks and talk it out."
Kara heaved a heavy sigh but did get up to get dressed. As she passed her mom, she stopped to engulf her in a hug. Kara let Monica go and turned to leave.
"What brought that on?" Monica asked.
Kara called over her shoulder, "You just looked like you needed a hug."
Monica smiled and shook her head as she swept up the loose Cheerios from the table.
"Sometimes the kid really surprises me, Pookie." She said while she picked the bear up. She was shocked when his head fell off his shoulders onto the floor and rolled under the table.
So she had decapitated poor Pookie. You know sometimes she didn't surprise her at all.

The flight to Spain had been rough. The plane encountered so much turbulence that Bob had actually turned green. It was hard for Gerard not to laugh but the tension was so thick between the band members that he knew to stay quiet and gloat. Everyone on the plane heaved a sigh of relief when the pilot announced that they would be landing in Spain in approximately fifteen minutes.
Gerard's mood was as bad as the flight. What was Monica's problem? She was supposed to be working on their home. Yes, he had told her to take it easy but still he had thought she would have done something, bought something for the house. Shit, all she had bought was a dress and a coat and expensive ones at that. He knew in the back of his mind that he didn't care that she had bought clothes she could buy anything she wanted. He had just hoped that when he got back they could all move into their new home. He needed to believe he and Monica had a real home. Fuck, he wanted to be home.
"What's wrong?" Franks concerned voice broke into his thoughts. He had told himself that he wasn't going to talk to Gerard but he had been friends with him long enough to recognize the look on his face. Gerard was in a dark mood and it would affect the concert tonight.
Gerard looked up, surprised that his friend was talking to him. "Just missing home." He said sadly "and hoping I have a home to go to when we get back."
"Your new house?" Frank guessed.
Gerard sighed, "Look I know Monica is pissed at me, I get that. But when we get back I'll get this straightened out."
Frank looked dubious but said nothing. He truly hoped his friend was right.
"But I found out that Monica hasn't done anything to our new house. She hasn't bought one stick of fucking furniture. Nothing. I checked by on-line account and all she has bought is a coat and a dress. Nothing else. Shit, I thought she would have picked out stuff and had it delivered so that we could move in when I get home."
Frank stared at him, "I don't think you get how hurt she it, Gee. Instead of worrying about having stuff in the house so you can move in maybe you should be worrying about it she'll move in at all."
Gerard's temper snapped, "Frank there is no fucking way she and the girls won't move into our house. As soon as I get back I'll fix this shit. I'll make her understand that I didn't do anything wrong and that I love her."
Frank just shook his head. "Gee you need to start fixing this now. Eliza and Katlin need to go. If she's the friend you say she is then she'll understand the situation you are in."
"But I don't want to hurt her feelings. I owe her so much, she was there for me, you know that."
"We all need to get the fuck home" Frank said looking around the plane. He had never anything quite as much as he meant those words.

Bob crashed onto his bed at the hotel, his stomach still roiling from the flight. His head was pounding but he really wanted to talk to Kara and tell her what he had discovered.
For awhile he thought she wasn't going to answer.
"Bob, what do you want?"
"Ouch, love you, too." He laughed.
"Not funny. Bob, I'm really busy"
"Stinkerbell, I figured out where the pictures came from. Katlin and Eliza put them on the net. They're trying to cause trouble."
"Great, then they have achieved their goal. Did you want anything else?"
"But, Honey, don't you see that that means? That they set us up."
Kara was silent for awhile. "But don't you see that if you two hadn't gone out with them there would be nothing to set you up with? The point is not who put the pics on the web, but that they exist at all. You two were out with them every night and you lied about it. And I don't want to discuss it any more." She hung up.

Once settled into his hotel room, Gerard decided to give Jamia a call. Maybe she could tell him what was going on with Monica. He would have tried his sister-in-law but he didn't want any valuable parts of his anatomy threatened.
Jamia answered with a less than friendly hello. He hated caller ID. It would have been nice to hear her friendly voice. "I need to talk to you," he said quickly hoping that she wouldn't hang up.
"What Gee?" she asked hoping that he was going to ask her how to start to fix things with Monica cause she definitely had some ideas.
"I was wondering if you could tell me just what's been going on with Monica? I found out she hasn't bought one thing for our new home."
Jamia was shocked, "You called to find out why she hasn't bought furniture? Not to find out how upset she is and what you can do to fix it?"
"But.."
She continued, "You have a bigger problem with your relationship than not having furniture, buddy." Her tone was full of anger.
His own anger matched hers, "Look I just called to see if you know why the hell she bought clothes instead of shit for our house. Not to listen to you bitch about how fucking bad our relationship is."
"How do you know she bought clothes?' Jamia asked momentarily trying to let go of some of her anger.
He explained out the on-line account. Jamia was only half listening. She was realizing that the clothes he was talking about were the things Monica had bought for Elle. It took every ounce of restraint she had not to tell him that the coat and dress were bought for his daughter. Monica walked in and handed her a cup of coffee that she and Kara had picked up for her at Starbucks. Jamia hoped she would leave but she sat at the foot of the bed. Jamia tried to choose her words carefully. "Look you just need to get your priorities straight."
"Wondering what she is doing, caring about what she is doing is having my priorities straight." He tried to keep his voice calm but with little luck.
Jamia had had enough, "You're an ass," she said slamming the phone shut.
Monica looked shocked; it dawned on her who Jamia had been talking to. "That was Gee wasn't it?"
Jamia ignored the question, "Where's Kara? Didn't she come back with you?"
"She's back at Donna's. Again, was that Gee?"
Jamia nodded, "Yeah"
Monica looked down at her own coffee cup. "So why did you call him an ass?"
Without thinking Jamia answered, "Cause he is one." When she saw the look of hurt on Monica's face she regretted her words. "Sorry."
"Please, what did he say?"
Jamia took a sip of coffee, "He's upset because he looked at his credit card statement on line and knows you haven't bought anything for your new house." She paused then added, "And he saw the dress and coat you bought and thinks that you bought them for yourself."
Monica looked surprised then angry, "Fuck, I'll pay him back."
Jamia tried to defuse her anger; "Look the guy doesn't know you bought them for his daughter. He's just upset about the house."
Monica brushed a tear off her cheek, "I am too. I just wish things were different and that we were gonna move into our new home when he gets back."
"Monica, you and Gee will work this out. You just gotta believe it will be okay."
"I miss him so much" she broke down into tears. Jamia sat her coffee cup aside and did the same with Monica's. Then she took her friend into her arms and rocked her while she cried